


be still my foolish heart

by fortunati



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: "If It Takes A War For Us To Me It Will Have Been Worth It", (can't believe thats an actual tag im so proud), F/M, Fluff, Inspired by a Hozier Song, Magnus Burnsides Drinks Respect Women Juice At Every Meal, Magnus Is A Big Dumb Dog, Memory Loss, Mutual Pining, Pining, [barbosa voice]: JUST KISS, just throwing that out there :>, mutual idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 05:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21192656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunati/pseuds/fortunati
Summary: Magnus rushes into everything, and that includes both planning a rebellion, and falling in love.





	be still my foolish heart

**Author's Note:**

> baby's first taz fic

Magnus is twenty-something years old when he lands in Ravensroost with no memory of how he got there. The only important things he knows are these: protect those that need protecting, dogs are better than most people, and there will never be a person more beautiful than Julia Waxman, the carpenter’s daughter. 

(Somewhere in the back of his head, in the very deepest part of his consciousness, he thinks he knows someone who would take affront to that, but he can’t for the life of him remember who it was.)

The point is, Julia Waxman is an actual goddess, and he thinks he might love her just a little when she throws one of Governor Kalen’s men off him, and smashes her heavy frying pan over the head of the other one. She grabs his hand and pulls him away and into her father’s shop, and then sits him down to clean the gash on his forehead. He definitely might love her just a tiny bit. He definitely one hundred percent trips over his own big dumb feet when she glances over her shoulder at him with a brilliant smile on her face. 

Stephen Waxman is almost amused when Julia introduces Magnus as another scrappy stray. Stephen looks him over and laughs. 

“Scrappy is  _ one _ word for it, Julia.”

Magnus doesn’t quite have the decency to look meek, but somehow finds the decency to not flex. (Okay, he flexes just a little, and favors Julia’s laugh.) Julia tells him he can stay for dinner. Stephen says he can stay for as long as he needs.

Magnus becomes a permanent fixture in the Hammer and Tongs, much to the displeasure of Kalen, and to the delight of Julia and her friends. He thinks he will always be surprised at how easily he and Julia fit together, their fingers brushing against each other more than once, and sharing soft looks in the quiet. Working in the shop, the quiet sounds of knife on wood, or sandpaper, or painting turns the workshop into a place that makes Magnus feel safe and cared for. (He tries so hard to remember the last time he felt like this, and he can’t find it.) He and Julia are both excellent woodworkers, but when they work together, the quality of their work skyrockets, and then suddenly, Magnus is the one people are asking for. He’s worried for a little while that Julia and Stephen wouldn’t like him anymore for taking over their job. 

If anything, they love him even more. 

Once, when he and Julia are closing the shop, and the light from the sunset peers through the windows, it catches in Julia’s thick curls, and on her lashes, and makes her  _ glow _ and Magnus’s mouth goes dry. She is so beautiful. He hopes she knows it. He definitely probably slightly in love with her. She catches him staring. He cannot look away. And then he cannot stop himself from reaching out and brushing a curly strand out of her eyes. The pads of his fingers touch just barely against the apple of her cheek, and he can feel the hitch of her breath as her eyes darken, and her lips part. And then, the bell above the door jingles as Jenny, one of Julia’s friends comes in to whisk her away, and Magnus and Julia jerk apart. (He likes to think that the careful accidental touches become more common. He hopes.)

He tries to convince Stephen to let him bring home one of the stray dogs, but not even Julia’s big eyes could sway the congenial old man into bringing in a loveable mangy mutt that might chew on the merchandise. Magnus pouts and slinks away that makes Julia and Stephen both think of one of the stray dogs.

“I already let you keep that one, Julia,” Stephen laughs. Julia hums and tucks her chin into her hand as she watches Magnus pout as he washes dishes. 

“I guess Mags is kind of a stray dog,” she admits with a soft smile. They both ignore the way the tips of Magnus’s ears go pink. 

It’s not long after when Julia brings Magnus into the rebellion, and everyone is surprised by how easily he falls into the teamwork, the organization, the planning. Magnus rushes into everything, and that includes both planning a rebellion, and falling in love. 

And then Magnus rushes into something he really shouldn’t have, and he gets beaten into the ground by Kalen’s men. Maybe he loses consciousness for a hot second there, because he remembers a gauntleted fist descending on his face, and then he sees Julia’s beautiful, beautiful face looming over his, her skin looking closer to gray than the usual warm brown. 

“Magnus, Maggie, come on, stay with me.”

Magnus wants to laugh, because of  _ course  _ he’ll stay, what kind of a question. She has his big dumb head in her hands, and he never wants to move because she is warm and soft and  _ safe _ . Her hands are shaking though, and he frowns up at her through the blood that’s blurring his vision, and asks her if she’s okay. He doesn’t mean to make her cry, he thinks, still frowning as Julia presses her forehead to his, and then her warmth is gone, and he is being lugged back to the rooms above the Hammer and Tongs.

She kisses him, later that night, but he doesn’t know it, because his face is wrapped in linens, and he is sleeping soundly, because Kalen’s men roughed him up worse than they ever had.

She kisses him again, in the morning, when he wakes with a groan, and asks,

“How bad do the other guys look?”

Stephen comes to check on them both in the late morning, and finds Julia curled against Magnus’s chest, carefully tucked up next to him, both of them asleep. He leaves them be, and tells the rest of them to leave them be, too. 

When Magnus and Julia banish Kalen from Ravensroost, they do it side-by-side, and wondering why they weren’t doing that from the beginning, and Magnus is definitely whole-heartedly in love with Julia. Kalen is gone, and Ravensroost is free, and they are married the very next day in the gazebo Magnus built with his own two hands. They kiss, and kiss again, and then some more, and savor each other’s company in a way they never had before. Hands clasped all day, even as they chat with friends and guests, Magnus and Julia Burnsides don’t leave each other’s side. They’d won the fight, they’d overthrown Kalen, and they could finally love each other the way they were supposed to, and had always wanted to. Magnus carries her to bed that night, and presses kisses into her throat, and spans her waist with his hands, and they don’t leave the house for a week. 

They talk about the future, and building their own home, and getting at least four dogs, and at least two kids, and Magnus is deeply, entirely, totally in love with Julia Waxman Burnsides, a woman who could kick his ass without breaking a sweat, and who doesn’t need protecting, but he wants to do it anyway, and he wouldn’t change a  _ single  _ thing. 


End file.
